Samsung will shut down another video service on its Smart TVs and phones after only one year in service. Milk Video was a viral video aggregation service that was launched after Samsung failed to establish a competitor to Apple’s iTunes.
"The Next Big Thing in Video"
In 2011, Samsung promised to step up its efforts in media content by launching video, music and photos services. They hired former Apple, Google and AOL executives to lead the project.
One of the first moves was to launch Samsung Video Hub; a movie service to take on Apple’s iTunes. It was shut down in mid-2014 after it failed to gain tracking despite Samsung’s huge footprint in Smart TVs and smartphones. It was particularly painful for customers who had purchased movies through the service.
In November 2014, Samsung launched a new service called Milk Video under the slogan “The Next Big Thing in Video” in an effort to aggregate videos from popular platforms such as YouTube, Vevo and Funny or Die. It was a key service on Samsung’s Tizen-based Smart TVs that came out in spring 2015 but it will cease to exist very soon.
- “While we remain committed to providing premium entertainment services, we have decided to end support for the Samsung Milk Video app as of November 20, 2015,” Samsung wrote on Google Play.
Samsung’s Milk Music and Milk VR apps will continue to operate for now, but so far Samsung’s efforts in media services have been unconvincing and embarrassing for the South Korean company.
- Source: Google Play via Variety
